


You aren't still mad, are you?

by ImhereImQuire



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: BDSM, Banter, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 05:42:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImhereImQuire/pseuds/ImhereImQuire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes, apparently he is. Narcissus and a very bitter Jean Claude trade two very different interpretations of their night together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You aren't still mad, are you?

Knock-knock. There was something strong yet light about the sound upon his door. Anita? Non. Anita would never have knocked, even if she had by some miracle decided to call an end to their separation. Which, by Jean Claude’s careful estimation of his human servant still had at least another two weeks to run.

The cloak was cast aside, fur lined burgundy velvet tossed effortlessly onto the back of the chair. Narcissus. As though his week had not been unpleasant enough. Nevertheless Narcissus was an ally and it would not do to be rude to him, at least not when his hyenas had been providing the added security while Richard was taking Anita’s side and all wolves but Jason had deserted him.

“Ah, Narcissus. And to what do I owe this unexpected visit?” Jean Claude asked. The less than diplomatic translation of course was ‘What in the hell do you want?’. Just what he needed, he thought to himself. A nymphomanic hyena with a seeming inability to keep his hands to himself added to his workload for the evening.

“I came to make arrangements with you about next month’s time sheets…but there’s no hurry.” the were he replied brightly, seating himself upon the other’s mountain of paperwork without awaiting invitation, one leg gracefully crossed above the other.

Mon Dieu…He looked around the room, wishing that Asher hadn’t suddenly gone to see if Jason was having problems getting into his pants. Rubber pants could often become a two-man endeavour, apparently. Unfortunately for the master vampire so was handling the Oba and like, any hyena Narcissus had a habit of striking when his prey was separated from the rest of the herd.

“You look unhappy, Jean Claude. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?”

“Not having that, which having, makes them short.” Jean Claude replied, catching and dismissing the Shakespearean reference with a small roll of his eyes. Narcissus nodded. He had of course heard about the now famous split in the triumvirate and was there like Cleopatra to push a lever into the cracks.

“In love?” he asked, tapping his fingers lightly as he waited for the other to accept his cue.

Jean Claude smiled grudgingly. Damn his weakness for Shakespearean tragedies… even when the other player was closer to Lady Macbeth than fair Juliet. “Out-”

“Of love?” Narcissus cut in, sounding far too gleeful at that prospect.

Jean Claude shook his finger, chiding the other before replying “Out of her favour where I am in love”, sighing lightly at this banter, yet unable to resist continuing along the script from memory.

“Alas that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!” Narcissus smirked, edging in closer and wrapping his arm around the back of the seat, fingers gently stroking the other’s back.

“Which makes you Venus herself” Jean Claude replied icily, swatting the other’s perfectly painted hand away from his shoulder. Narcissus retracted his hand with a frown, pouting as though the vampire had viciously clawed it like a bad tempered animal.

“Venus? Wrong pantheon” he declared, wrinkling his nose slightly before settling once more upon the desk, this time on Jean Claude’s side of it, toes gently stroking the back of other’s calf until that too was jerked away. “Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!”

“You forget, Narcissus. I know you, what your 'brawling love' and all that you’re capable of” the vampire replied stiffly, only to receive a derisive and rather bark-like laugh from the hyena, who rolled his eyes heavenward and sighed as though Jean Claude had made an incredibly amusing comment. He should have seen that one coming.

“Oh, poor, dear, sweet Jean Claude!” he said, crossed ankle swinging as he stretched his arms above his head. “You, my precious, haven’t seen half of what I’m capable of. For one thing you’re still alive.”

Narcissus might not have had Gabriel’s track record for killing off lovers but he could certainly have taught him lessons when it came to delivering retribution to enemies. Noting his host’s lack of amusement and clear hostility the Oba tutted. “You aren’t still vying for sympathy over our last play session, are you?” honestly, some people could be so sensitive!

The pencil Jean Claude had been toying with snapped under the sudden pressure, a tension that made his voice almost a growl. “Narcissus, you brutalised me over a period of eight hours. What was it first? Candle wax I believe…”

“Candle wax is practically vanilla!” Narcissus protested.

“Not where you were dripping it” he interjected. “Which incidentally was where you introduced those pins…”

“Surgical needles!”

“I don’t care what they were, Narcissus” came the disgruntled response. “There were sharp implements where sharp implements have no business being. Then there was the pinwheel…”

“Which you enjoyed” the were reminded with a smirk, recalling some less than agonised writhing from his bound captive. Jean Claude’s lips pursed, as close to a blush as anyone would see from the incubus. That was not the point.

“Then that horrific electrical device….” he shuddered at the thought. As a vampire he had been born long before electricity had been thought of and it still had the power to intimidate him with its strange unnaturalness.

“What? Ohhh, you mean the violet wand… that wasn’t anywhere near as terrible as you thought it was going to be-” he paused “at first. Alright, alright; possibly I got a little carried away at that point…”

The master of the city exploded at that point, losing composure in the face of the casually lounging hyena that was, by this poin,t lying sprawled upon his desk, chin rested upon one palm, heeled shoe swaying from the cradle of his foot. “Show me one definition of ‘a little carried away’ that includes a chain tailed cat!”

“Well, a leather flogger wouldn’t have conducted electricity.” the effeminate figure sounded almost bored by this statement of the obvious and had actually began to study his nails.

“Unlike the surgical needles” the vampire winced. They had been fully capable of conducting a current, as he had found out first hand.

“Which I’ve apologised for” It might have been more sincere if Narcissus hadn’t took that particular moment to yawn and roll onto his side, contriving to look brow beaten and victimised, as though Jean Claude was being anything but reasonable.

“No, Narcissus. No. You have not”. His tormentor had been anything but repentant, both at the time and tonight.

“I haven’t?” the other cocked his head to one side as he tried to think back. “Well I’m quite sure that I intended to.” He replied, while artfully sidestepping the opportunity to do so once more.

“Will this be before or after the apology for the bullwhip you decided to pull out at that point?” he asked between gritted teeth. Just leave, he thought wearily. He’d had enough of those memories.

“I healed you before we progressed to the whipping” Narcissus was adamant on this point. “I gave you my own blood and let you rest”. How could Jean Claude have forgotten such a thing? Such ingratitude!

He sighed deeply. This, at least was true, though not nearly as merciful as Narcissus made out and his voice was arctic in it’s lack of warmth. “Blood that I had to lap from your shoe, on my knees” he looked away, expression that unreadable blank that was often Jean Claude’s last resort. He had no wish to remember the humiliation he had undergone.

Narcissus smiled at the memory but his nostalgic glow faded under the weight of the other’s accusations and distaste, his expression frozen. This was no longer fun somehow and he suddenly he didn’t feel playful at all. He felt the prick of something far less forgiving than needles. Conscience. Urgh, how dare Jean Claude spoil his good mood! “You’re forgetting one thing, Jean Claude” he growled dangerously and a brow was perked in his direction.

“We both know that there was more. But I think I’ve made my point” the vampire looked far too still, and that wasn’t any fun at all, either.

“But I’ve yet to present mine.” Narcissus sat up, folding his arms and glaring defensively. “Don’t look at me like that, Jean Claude. You seduced me, something you failed to mention to your beauty and your beast. You spent weeks at my club, flattering and romancing me, purring in my ear, complaining when duty or your mistress called you away. You weren’t at liberty to give yourself away freely, you said but if I would meet with Nikolaos then perhaps she would allow us our time together. You were the one that suggested it, Jean Claude. You feigned interest, smiled and nodded at the most agreeable points, made promises and all the right noises. And I gave you a safe word, which you didn’t use!”

“Which I couldn’t use!” Jean Claude exploded suddenly. “Nikolaos would have been livid. I was under her instruction-”

“And I was under your deception!” Narcissus retorted with equal anger, and there was something raw and serious in his eyes, hateful and filled with fury. Jean Claude had declared him an unpleasant duty to a room full of people while he had spent all that time thinking of them as lovers parted by circumstance!

They glared at each other for a long time, but then without the usual masks and poker faces there was considerably more to see than either would have been prepared to admit.

Eventually Narcissus exhaled a deep breath and lit a cigarette, eying the other out of the corner of his eye defensively, neither of them prepared to concede.

It was the hyena that spoke first, after drawing deeply upon his cigarette “Now we’ve both established that we were both screwed over by the wicked witch of the west… what are we going to do about it?” the mask was back in place, his casual manner returned as he smoked, offering the pack to Jean Claude, who waved it away.

“Do?” Jean Claude lifted his chin, confused. “What do you mean?”

“To fix things” was the simple reply as Narcissus turned his head, blowing the smoke in the opposite direction. “You’re still carrying ill memories of me that you make you uncomfortable. And I’m left feeling bitter and deceived. I don’t want to be a monster in your mind any more than I assume that you want to be stay as a treacherous whore in mine. It’s too close to letting the pint sized bitch win for my liking”

Jean Claude bristled at the insult, but let it pass. “And what do you suggest?” he asked, expecting Narcissus to suggest a second play session between them. Which the were naturally did, but with a twist that the vampire most certainly hadn’t foreseen.

“You aren’t serious, are you?” he asked, raising a brow in surprise. This was a very unanticipated turn of events.

“Of course I am. You haven’t declined yet, either.” Narcissus pointed out.

“I’m… intrigued.” He admitted. “What do you think it will accomplish, precisely?” and he was considering it. Anita would be displeased, but that appeared to be her default setting, and he had played martyr to her for long enough this round. If she didn’t have ammunition for round two then his beloved might actually apologise, and that wouldn’t do at all. Besides, his petite had so many stipulations and conditions, and Narcissus…well Narcissus had barely any.

The Oba shrugged, a contrived lack of interest, not a feigned lack of knowledge or understanding. It never paid to unveil too many cards in one’s hand. “Consider it my means of apologising. Talk is cheap, as they say but this… this marks us as equals, does it not?”

Jean Claude had to agree but there was one question in his mind that hadn’t been answered, one thing that made him suspicious. “That equality is a step down for you. I know you, you wouldn’t do that unless you had something in return” he replied guardedly. “What’s in it for you, as you Americans say? Why would you be willing to let me Top you, you of all people? ”

Narcissus chuckled, then smiled almost wistfully. “That’s easy, mon ami, as you French say,” he added in with a smirk. “Passion”.

“Passion?”

He slid himself onto Jean Claude’s lap, and though the other tensed he didn’t push him away. “Passion” the smaller man repeated, a hazy grin crossing his delicate features at the thought of it.

“True, raw, unbridled lust. I want to feel your hunger, to know that you are taking from me exactly what you want” he ran his tongue along his lower lip, eyes half closed as though it were something he could taste from memory. “I want you to want me, to be consumed with hunger for me. I want every part your body longing to be against me, inside me.”

“I… I get your need, your thirst. I want to spend a night living as your fantasy, to be the fulfillment of your darkest desires. Crave me. Burn for me” Narcissus whispered against the other’s throat, every word stroking the ardeur, spoken in a language that it knew only too well.

Passion. The essence of everything the vampire’s inner demon lived for, both the fuel and the fire itself. He grasped the other’s hair roughly and pulled him to his lips, kissing him heatedly. “When?” he whispered, voice suddenly hoarse.

“Tomorrow,” Narcissus purred breathlessly. “I’ll let you take me to my hardest limits. You can even feed on me, if you wish. Properly, this time. ” This was publicly known to be something the hyena had always withheld.

“From your throat?” the bluish vein was clear through such pale skin and suddenly held the vampire’s full attention, his lips pressed inches from that rich fount of intoxicating blood. The blood of an alpha were. There was no delicacy as sweet, blackberries and cherry wine with added rocket fuel.

“From anywhere that you want” he promised with a perverse little chuckle.

Jean Claude had to smile himself. Narcissus had enough anywheres to keep him occupied for quite some time.

“Very well then…..let us talk terms, déviant divin”.


End file.
